Setting up protected areas in East Africa: In Africa, a protected area is a geographically defined area that is designated or regulated and managed to achieve specific conservation objectives. It may be set aside for the protection of biological diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources and is managed through legal or other effective means.
Protected areas in East Africa include national parks and natural wildlife reserves, sustainable use reserves, wilderness areas, and heritage sites, protected areas in East Africa have been widely used as a conservation tool in order to maintain a representative sample of unaltered species and eco-systems for the future and to limit the potential for environmental degradation through human mismanagement of resources.
In East Africa I will give an example of Uganda, Uganda Wildlife Authority has a key role in promoting the establishment of protected areas throughout Uganda; they have developed standards and guidelines for the management of all the protected areas.
Setting up protected areas in East Africa have been established following the categories defined by respective countries, protected areas are managed mainly for the sustainable use of natural ecosystems.
Setting up protected areas is the best way to preserve biodiversity and conserve it through protected areas by reducing human activities or completely excluding humans.
In East African population growth and poverty are seen as the main causes of environmental degradation; people are regarded as a problem from which the environment needed protection.
Protected areas in East Africa, national parks, and wildlife reserves limit the local people, traditional practices are prohibited, and people are held under penalties of fines or imprisonments for utilizing park resources. However, in East Africa, there are very controversial scientific and social problems with this approach, which was characterized by serious conflicts between local communities living around the protected areas and the state.
The following will lead to a transformation in thinking and the recognition for the local communities living around the protected areas in East Africa
The advantages of setting up protected areas in East Africa